Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, sidelined the last two weeks after hand surgery, could return in a starting role in Saturday’s game against Texas, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports. Mateer underwent a procedure on his right hand following last moth’s win over Auburn, and missed Oklahoma’s 44-0 victory against Kent State.
“Like we’ve reported the last couple weeks, it continues to be possible he ends up playing this week, but no final call has been made as of yet,” Zenitz said. “The post-surgery feedback was very good and led to optimism regarding the recovery timetable.”
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said after the Sooners’ win over Kent State that he was “assuming” Mateer would not be back for the Longhorns in Red River and the offense was moving forward with Michael Hawkins Jr. taking the reps. Hawkins Jr. threw for 162 yards, ran for 33 yards and scored four total touchdowns against Kent State.
Prior to suffering the hand injury, Mateer established himself as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender while guiding the Sooners to a 4-0 record. The Washington State transfer rushed for at least one touchdown in each of his four starts and threw for 1,215 yards and six touchdowns. Now ranked No. 5 in the latest AP Poll, unbeaten Oklahoma is a 2.5-point betting underdog against Texas.
“We’ll plan for Mateer, you have to,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He’s a dynamic player, he’s the heartbeat of that offense for sure, everything goes through him.”
Mateer initially projected to miss about a month after surgery, and that Oklahoma was hopeful to have him back before the end of October, specifically for the Sooners’ matchup with No. 4 Ole Miss.
Before the injury, Mateer ranked second nationally with 351.3 yards of total offense per game and rushed for at least one touchdown and passed for one touchdown in each of his last 10 games dating back to his time last season with the Cougars.
Oklahoma faces one of the toughest schedules remaining in college football. After the Sooners take on Texas this weekend and South Carolina next week, Oklahoma ends the year with five games against top 25 competition over the final six weeks.
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